problems of reality _henry t laurency

8/2/2019 Problems of Reality _Henry T Laurency

1/31

1

1 THE PROBLEMS OF REALITY, PART ONE

1.1 What Most People Do Not Know1An eminent modern scientist answered the question whether mankind has as yet succeeded in

exploring one per cent of reality: No, not even one ten thousandth of one per cent.2That is, not even one millionth! One certainly has respect for such a scientist. Nobody makes a

greater impression than he who realizes mans immense ignorance about life. For it is obvious to

anyone who has assimilated what theology, philosophy, and science have to tell us about reality

that the conclusions drawn are mere hypotheses (a euphemism for guesswork and supposition!).

Or, as Professor Whittaker has put it: We know that there is something we call matter, but not

what it is; we know that it moves, but not why it does so, and that is the sum of all our

knowledge. That is true. Science cannot answer the questions of What? and Why?, which

already Newton realized. To rid themselves of the evidence of this too embarrassing ignorance,

modern philosophers try to discard all reality concepts, calling just them fictions!3There are plenty of authorities in theology, philosophy, and science, who will pass judgements

on everything and make dogmatic assertions about matters which they have not even examined.

They know a priori that this cannot be true, because it conflicts with what they read in their

paper pope or conflicts with the laws of nature; as if their paper pope had solved the problem of

existence for them, amounted to a world-view that explains reality and solves the basic problems

of knowledge! As if science could decide what conflicts with the laws of nature and what does

not, when it has not explored even one per cent of them!4It is important that we should not restrict ourselves to what has been investigated, that we

should not reject any one idea just because to us it seems alien, improbable, or unprofitable. It is

important to investigate any new possibility of knowledge. We know too little to be able to afford

to neglect the least chance of expanding our knowledge. Most new ideas at first sight appear

improbable to most people. Those who consider themselves able to judge accept only what fits inwith their own thought system. But they ought to realize that if that system is so correct, they

should be all but omniscient.5The scientists seem ever oblivious to the fact that their hypotheses and theories are just

temporary. They flatter themselves that they are free from dogmatism, that their thinking is free

and straight. But the history of science has always borne witness to the opposite. It still is all too

frequently seen that scientific authorities reject what is seemingly improbable, strange, and

unknown (as every revolutionary idea has been) without examining it. The scientists call what

they cannot explain delusion, the religious call it god.6There is something seemingly incorrigibly, ineradicably idiotic in this: in refusing to examine.7The true seeker, who has recognized mankinds total disorientation and intellectual

helplessness as to the problems of existence, examines everything, not caring whether the ruling

authorities have dismissed it categorically or parroting public opinion ridicules and disdains, as it

does everything that it does not know or cannot comprehend.8To try to explain to the uninitiated something of which they are totally unaware, would seem a

hopeless task, especially when it is something that to them appears strange, improbable, and

unreal.9Mankind has for so long been fed with so many religious, philosophic, scientific, and, in the

last decades, also occult attempts to explain existence that most people refuse to study the true

knowledge when it is offered. They are content to explore only the world that is visible to them.

General doubt whether there is any other reality is gaining ground more and more.10

But suppose there is a knowledge of existence that to the learned will seem the height ofmadness. Suppose Kant, the philosopher, was mistaken in claiming that we shall never come to


2/31

2

know anything about the inner reality of nature. Suppose the Indian rishis, the Egyptian

hierophants, the gnostic theurgists, the original, true Rosicrucians were not such mystagogues,

charlatans, and deceivers as the learned have tried to make them.11

Characteristic of the learned world today is its contempt for everything we have inherited

from our fathers, as if all mankinds experiences hitherto were nonsensical and useless in life.

12Scientific research has come far within its own limited domains, but only the lite among thescientists are beginning to realize how little mankind knows about the whole.

13What do the paleontologists know about the antiquity of man? Do they know that there have

been fully developed men on our planet for 21 million years?14

What do the geologists know about the two hemispherical continents, Lemuria and Atlantis,

now lying on the bottom of the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean; and what do the antiquarians know

about their civilizations?15

What do the archaeologists know about cultures nearer to us in time than those mentioned:

the Indian culture of some 50.000 years ago, the Egyptian of 40.000 years ago, the Peruvian of

15.000 years ago, or even that of ancient Greece of 12.000 years ago?16

What do the learned know about the different secret knowledge orders that have existed inmany countries? What do they know about the order instituted by Vyasa in India some 45.000

years ago, or that by Hermes Trismegistos in Egypt some 40.000 years ago, the one by the first

Zoroaster in Persia about 30.000 years ago, or that by Pythagoras just about 2700 years ago?17What do the learned know about existence, about the structure of the universe, about other

kinds of matter and other worlds than the physical, about the fact of a fifth kingdom in nature?18

What do these immensely learned know even about the individuals life that continues after

he has left his worn-out organism?19

What they may perhaps have picked up of the pertaining knowledge is so distorted that it

must be regarded as little more than gross superstition.20To the Western attitude, the idea that knowledge must be kept secret is almost revolting, in

any case repulsive, and it prompts the assumption that one is dealing with the intellectualquackery of charlatans.

21The Indians, on the other hand, simply accept secrecy as a necessity. Several thousand years

of experience have taught them that one must not cast pearls, and they do not.22

And this for the simple reasons that exact comprehension calls for considerable

qualifications, and that all knowledge which confers power is abused by those in a position to use

power for their own good.23

There are many kinds of yogis in India. The highest kind is unknown except to special

initiates. The yogis of whom Westerners hear are mostly members of the Ramakrishna Mission.

They teach the philosophy of Sankhya and Vedanta as expounded by Ramakrishna. The highest

yogis are initiates who pass on their knowledge only to a few select disciples under the strictestvows of secrecy. They regard all Westerners as barbarians and consider it a profanation of their

knowledge to reveal anything of it to those ignorant, incurably skeptical, scornfully and arrogantly

superior, curious people, who abuse the knowledge the moment they think they have understood it

and who, moreover, place all their knowledge at the service of barbarism and at the disposal of

bandits.24

The Indians attitude to life is the exact opposite of the Westerners. Whereas to the

Westerner the physical world is the only one that exists, to the Indian the superphysical reality is

the essential one. It is the higher material worlds that constitute the material basis of physical

matter and the causes of the processes of nature exist in those higher worlds.25The real yogi, who has succeeded in his experiments, has developed organs which in others

are as yet undeveloped, being intended to be organized and vitalized in some future epoch, organswhich make it possible to explore higher molecular kinds, a whole series of ever higher stages of


3/31

3

aggregation far beyond the possibilities of nuclear physics to ascertain.26Of these rudiments Westerners have no conception and their mighty authorities dismiss with

derision and contempt the mere idea that such things could be possible. They have, to be sure, the

wonderful ability to judge things of which they know nothing.27The Indian explanation of reality is itself superior to that of the West. It is a doctrine of

development, of the pre-existence of the soul, of rebirth, and of karma, that is, the law of sowingand reaping. It asserts that there are other worlds than the physical and undertakes to prove this to

serious and honest inquirers who are prepared to undergo its methods of developing the rudiments

of higher kinds of objective consciousness existing in man. It thereby refutes the agnostics and

the skeptics denial of superphysical knowledge, of existence being ruled laws, of development,

etc., thereby clearing the way for esoterics.28

How, then, could Westerners have any knowledge of superphysical worlds when they do not

have the ability to ascertain their existence? They ascertain facts in physical matter by applying

physical sense (objective physical consciousness). In order to ascertain facts in higher worlds a

corresponding kind of sense is necessary, and it is that which has been given the unfortunate name

of clairvoyance.29Scientists cannot be blamed for lacking emotional or mental sense. But one is justified in

demanding that they should not categorically deny the existence of things concerning which they

have no logical right to express opinions.30Philosophy does not teach man to think in accordance with reality. It does teach, however,

that man only makes mistakes when trying to think without the necessary facts. The philosophers

have not yet grasped this. Besides, they have failed to solve the most evident of all the problems of

knowledge.31

The judgement of Western psychology is preferably left to the understanding reader of all the

following.32Those who are satisfied with their thought systems (not least the skeptics) may very well have

them. We are all to re-learn in lives to come. But there is a category of inquirers who instinctivelyrealize that there must be something different, something more, that things cannot be just as the

learned say they are. It is these seekers that the esoterician wishes to reach, not in order to

persuade them, but to ask them to examine the matter logically. If it is false, then it must be

possible to refute it logically. But it is not refuted by the ordinary rant of those who have never

examined the matter.33

At mankinds present stage of development, the esoteric knowledge cannot be more than a

working hypothesis where most people are concerned. But the further mankind develops, the more

obvious its incomparable superiority will become.34

System is thoughts way of orienting itself. Facts are largely useless until reason can fit them

into their correct contexts (historical, logical, psychological, or causal ones). All rational thinkingis based on principles and systems. Every thinking man has made his own system, whether he

knows it or not. Systems afford a correct apprehension of ground and consequence of thinking, as

well as of cause and effect of objective realities. The quality of the system shows the individuals

level of development, his ability of judgement, and his knowledge of facts. Most peoples systems

are the belief systems of emotional thinking which no facts can upset. Thereby the individual has

reached his point of maturity, the limit of his receptivity, being captive in the prison of his own

thoughts.35Ignorance about existence is so great that the dogmatic systems of theology, the speculative

systems of philosophy, and the primitive hypothesis systems of science have all been accepted as

satisfactory explanations.

36The inquirers into truth examine the original facts or basic hypotheses of the existing systems,to what extent any system does not contradict itself, its consequences, and its ability to explain


4/31

4

rationally.37Many people find esoterics self-evident the moment they first come into contact with it. This

is because knowledge, as Platon maintained, is remembrance anew. Everything which we are able

immediately to grasp, comprehend, understand, we have assimilated in previous incarnations.

Also qualities and abilities once acquired remain latently, until they are given opportunities to

develop in some new incarnation. Understanding of the old remains as well as the turn for skills.One of many examples of this is the genius, an otherwise incomprehensible phenomenon.

38The esoterician presents his system to those who have remained seekers, not being satisfied

with the ruling systems. He quietly awaits the day when science will have ascertained so many

formerly esoteric facts that it will no longer be possible for it to refuse to accept esoterics as the

only really tenable working hypothesis.39

One inestimable value, among others, of the esoteric knowledge is that it frees from the

superstitions and spurious knowledge of ignorance, from illusions and fictions (conceptions

without correspondences in reality). Another is that it entails a complete revaluation of all the

values of life as a necessary consequence of knowing the meaning and goal of life.

1.2 The Esoteric Knowledge Orders1If man is not to be like a reed in the wind, like a ship on the boundless sea, or feel as though he

were walking on a bottomless quagmire, he will need at the emotional stage something firm for

his feeling, and at the mental stage something firm for his thinking. Up to now, this something

has not been in accordance with reality.2As mankind cannot unaided acquire knowledge of existence, of its meaning and goal, or

knowledge of cosmic reality and life, it has always had this knowledge given to it by whom will

be shown later.3This has entailed definite risks. The knowledge that gives power, the knowledge of laws and

forces of nature and how to make use of them, has always been abused for selfish ends. And those

who have not been able to comprehend the knowledge of reality have always distorted it intosuperstition and false doctrines.

4Along with knowledge goes responsibility for the right use of knowledge. Abuse of knowledge

leads to the loss of knowledge and where whole nations are concerned, to their annihilation.5On two occasions whole continents have had to be submerged into the depths of the sea:

Lemuria and Atlantis.6After those two failures it was decided that the knowledge should be imparted in secret

schools of knowledge only, and only to those who had reached such a stage of development that

they could understand correctly and not misinterpret what they were taught, but apply it correctly

in the service of life. They were taught to think correctly. For the last 45.000 years esoteric

knowledge orders have been instituted among nations that have reached a sufficiently high level.Since knowledge is remembrance anew, those who have never been initiated cannot see the

correctness of esoterics.7The knowledge orders comprised several degrees. Those in the lowest degree were given

carefully elaborated symbols which could be interpreted in a new way in each higher degree, so

that only those who reached the highest degree were fully able to understand the whole of it. The

procedure involved difficulties in that those who did not reach the highest degree sometimes made

their own faulty thought systems.8For those not admitted to these orders, religions were instituted corresponding to different

nations ability to understand and their need of norms of purposeful activity.9The rapid rise in general enlightenment and the advances of science made other measures

necessary. Ever since the 18th century the conflict between belief and knowledge (betweenwhich those are unable to distinguish who believe they know, comprehend, understand), has


5/31

5

grown more and more accentuated. (All are believers who lack the exact knowledge of reality,

also those who say they do not believe in anything.) This conflict began with the anti-religious,

anti-metaphysical philosophy of enlightenment and grew throughout the 19th century with the

progress of scientific research. Laplace with his Systme du monde, Lamarck, Darwin, Spencer,

and Haeckel with the theory of evolution. Lange hisHistory of Materialism, and others, convinced

natural scientists that they did not need the hypothesis of a spiritual world. Their attacks on theold life-views led to a growing uncivilizing disorientation, so that people finally felt increasingly

uncertain about right and wrong. They are even uncertain whether right and wrong is anything but

old superstition. There is a danger that mankind in its madness will exterminate itself.10

It became necessary to take steps to counter this frenzy, and it was decided to allow the safe

part of the esoteric knowledge, which mankind now has the ability to comprehend, if not to

understand its significance, to be made exoteric. Mankind thus had the possibility of forming a

rational conception of reality and life, as well as of the meaning and goal of existence.11Belief was not permitted in the esoteric orders. In these, the question was always that of

comprehending and understanding, not believing. In the lowest degree they were taught to

distinguish between belief and assumption. Belief is absolute, unreasonable emotional conviction,unamenable to correction or reason. Everybody has his petty beliefs about almost any absurdity,

and this is because man is unable to truly know anything but definitively established facts in the

visible world. In contrast, assumption is preliminary, valid only until one has come to know, is

amenable to rational arguments, and desires correction. Authorities there may well be in all

domains of life, but their assumptions do not amount to any final instance for common sense,

which, however different for each of us, is still the highest sense and that which everybody ought

to strive to develop. It is the individuals synthetic instinct of life acquired through his

incarnations.12

During the last two thousand years there has been an unremitting conflict between different

idiologies, a conflict between theology and philosophy, theology and science, philosophy and

science.13

In the history of European philosophy it is chiefly the conflict between theology and

philosophy that is apparent. In this conflict, theology has almost always had the support of those in

political power. Philosophy has had to fight its way step by step, with unspeakable toil and

millions of martyrs, to achieve freedom of thought and expression, tolerance and humanity. These

gains are instead threatened by the Marxist idiology, which forbids the individual to think in any

other way than what those in power decree. This is the new tyranny of thought. That mental

development is hampered by this new kind of idiotization even the simplest intellect should be

able to see.14

The conflict between theology and science began with Galilei and is still going on.15

The conflict between philosophy and science has been called off, at least for the time being,now that the philosophers finally have become either agnostics who deny the possibility of

ascertaining superphysical facts, or antimetaphysicians who deny the existence of superphysical

reality.16Throughout the history of philosophy, which actually begins with the sophists, we can trace

the attempts of human reason to solve the problems of existence on its own without esoteric

knowledge, with access to physical sense only.17That this was bound to fail will become manifest in what follows. But it is only now that

people in general are beginning to see that it is impossible. Science lacks the organs of

apprehension necessary to this, and the scientist refuses to concern himself with things that cannot

be investigated by the instruments of natural research. Logically, this is perfectly defensible.

18It should be pointed out that the Indian yoga philosophy is not consistent with the facts ofesoteric knowledge, but is based on misinterpretations of some of these. Rebirth has been turned


6/31

6

into a meaningless metempsychosis, so that it is considered possible for men to be reborn as

animals, whereas reversion to an inferior natural kingdom is in fact precluded. Evolution through

the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms is considered to end with mens entrance

into and extinction in nirvana, whereas nirvana is not really the end but the beginning. The Indian

interpretation of manas, buddhi, nirvana, atma, karma, is misleading, as is also the absolute

subjectivism of Advaita, which makes knowledge of the matter and motion aspects of existenceimpossible.

1.3 The Proofs of Hylozoics1When people get hold of a new word, sooner or later it loses its original significance. People

always believe they know which concept the word belongs to. It can be predicted that the term

esoteric as an ingredient of the vocabulary of the masses will be synonymous with practically

anything.2Regrettably, there is also a risk of esoterics falling into disrepute because of the growing

popularity of quasi-occultism. More and more writers of the incompetent sort, with an eye to the

main chance, have hastened to produce all sorts of balderdash, for there is a rapid sale for this asfor all other cheap literature. Their sense of reality being ruined by all fictionalism, people prefer

fiction to reality.3There are also clairvoyants la Swedenborg who will tell what they have seen in the inner

world. They ought to consider the esoteric axiom that no self-tutored seer ever saw correctly,

since though the next world may be seemingly like ours, it is actually totally unlike. Unless one

has esoteric knowledge of the pertaining matters, one will misinterpret practically everything.4There are five proofs, for those who need them, of the correctness of hylozoics (its agreement

with reality), each one of them by itself wholly sufficient, being of matchless logical tenability.

These five are:

the logical proof,

the proof by explanation,

the proof by prediction,

the proof by clairvoyance,

the experimental proof.

5The logical proof consists in showing that hylozoics constitutes a non-contradictory and

irrefutable thought system and, as such, cannot be constructed by the human intellect nor without

knowledge of reality. It can never come in conflict with facts definitively ascertained by science.

All new facts will find their place in it. The more research advances, the more obvious will it be

that hylozoics is the only tenable working hypothesis. At mankinds present stage of developmentit cannot be anything else for most people.

6The proof by explanation: Hylozoics provides the simplest, most unitary, most general, non-

contradictory and irrefutable explanation of thousands of facts otherwise completely inexplicable.7The proof by prediction: Already a number of verifiable predictions (sufficient in number to

fill a volume) of discoveries, inventions, and happenings, in themselves unpredictable by man,

have been made.8The proof by clairvoyance: As also Indian raja yogis maintain, anyone who is willing to

undergo the requisite training can develop abilities, now dormant in man, which will one day be

powers possessed by everybody, that is, the possibility of acquiring objective consciousness in

ever higher molecular kinds, or states of aggregation, at present invisible.9The experimental proof (magic): This proof consists in knowing the pertaining laws of nature

and the method of their application and in using physical etheric material energies to bring about


7/31

7

changes also in dense physical matter. Magic, however, has been prohibited for a number of

reasons. Its use would put a weapon in the hands of mankinds potential bandits and tempt them

into all sorts of crime. Scientists have dubbed the magicians frauds and called all such phenomena

impossible, since they conflict with the laws of nature. The magicians have been martyrs in

other ways too. Those hungry for sensations demand more and more of them. Those in need of

help besiege their victims with their pleas. The curious want all their problems solved for them.

1.4 THE BASIC FACTORS OF EXISTENCE1The following is a popular expos, in modern dress and for the first time, of the essentials of

the Pythagorean secret doctrine. Pythagoras called the world-view hylozoics (spiritual

materialism). All matter has spirit or consciousness. All worlds are spiritual worlds, lower and

higher ones.2The Problems of Reality affords only the most fundamental facts needed in order to understand

the meaning and goal of life. Thousands of facts already published are necessarily set aside in

order not to burden the presentation. A more detailed account is given in The Philosophers Stone

by Laurency.3As regards the theory of knowledge, everything is above all what it appears to be: physical

material reality, but beside that always something totally different and immensely more.4Existence is a trinity of three equivalent aspects: matter, motion, and consciousness. None of

these three can exist without the other two. All matter is in motion and has consciousness.5Matter is composed of primordial atoms, which Pythagoras called monads, the smallest

possible parts of primordial matter and the smallest firm points for individual consciousness.6The original cause of motion is the dynamic energy of primordial matter.

7To begin with, consciousness in the primordial atoms is potential (unconscious), is gradually

awakened in the process of manifestation, becoming actualized passive consciousness, and

subsequently becomes increasingly more active in ever higher worlds of ever higher natural

kingdoms.8Pythagoras realized that the Greeks had the prerequisites for comprehending objective reality,

for scientific method, and for systematic thinking. Cultivating the consciousness aspect, as the

Orientals do, before the foundation for understanding material reality has been laid, results in

subjectivism and in a life of unbridled imagination. It is to Pythagoras we owe most of our

fundamental reality concepts, which todays conceptual analysts are so busy trying to discard,

thereby making conception of reality definitely impossible. Pythagoras, with his doctrine of

monads, and Demokritos, with his exoteric atomic theory, can be considered the first two

scientists in the Western sense of the word. They realized that the matter aspect is the necessary

basis of a scientific approach. Without this basis there will be no accuracy in exploring the nature

of things and their relationships. There are no controllable limits to individual consciousness, butit has a tendency to drown in the ocean of consciousness.

9The following will outline further the three aspects of reality, the consciousness development

in the different natural kingdoms, and the great Law (the sum total of all the laws of nature and

life). Knowledge of the aspects of life is a necessary condition of understanding the evolution of

the natural kingdoms.


8/31

8

THE MATTER ASPECT

1.5 Primordial matter1Primordial matter, the chaos of the Greeks, is at the same time limitless space.2

In this unmanifested primordial matter, beyond space and time, there is an unlimited numberof cosmoses at all the different stages of being built out or dismantled.

1.6 The Cosmos1A cosmos is a globe in primordial matter. Its original dimensions are small, but, being

supplied with primordial atoms from the inexhaustible store of primordial matter, it grows

incessantly until it has reached the requisite size. It is thus matter that is space.2A fully built-out cosmos, such as ours, consists of a continuous series of material worlds of

different degrees of density, the higher penetrating all the lower. The highest world thus penetrates

everything in the cosmos.3The worlds are built out from the highest world, each higher world supplying material for the

next lower world which is formed in and out of the higher ones.4There are seven series of seven cosmic material worlds, making 49 in all (17, 814, 1521,

2228, 2935, 3642, 4349), in accordance with the constant division into seven departments.

These atomic worlds occupy the same space in the cosmos. All the higher worlds embrace and

penetrate the lower worlds.5There is a very simple explanation for the numbers three and seven which so-called experts

brush aside with the usual ridicule. Three is because of the three aspects (trinity!!) of existence and

seven because that is the greatest number of different ways in which three can be combined in

succession. Also the sneer at Pythagorean numerology will be a thing of the past when people

come to know more.6

The numeration of the worlds is from the highest world down, showing that they are formedfrom the highest world down. It is thus easy to see how many higher worlds remain to be attained

whichever lower world the individual happens to be in.7All the 49 worlds differ from each other as to dimension, duration, material composition,

motion, and consciousness; due to differences in density of primordial atoms.8The seven lowest cosmic worlds (4349) contain billions of solar systems. The lowest world

(49) is the physical world.9Our cosmos is a perfect organization.

1.7 Atomic Matter1The cosmos consists of primordial atoms (called monads by Pythagoras) which are composed

to make 49 kinds of atoms, each in succession coarser than the previous ones, in seven continuous

series of seven atomic kinds in each. These atomic kinds make up the 49 cosmic atomic worlds.2Each lower atomic kind is formed out of the next higher one (2 out of 1, 3 out of 2, 4 out of 3,

etc.). The lowest atomic kind (49) thus contains all the 48 higher kinds. When an atomic kind is

dissolved, the next higher kind is obtained; out of the physical atom are obtained 49 atoms of

atomic kind 48.3All matter (atomic kinds, molecular kinds, aggregates, worlds, etc.) is formed and dissolved.

Only primordial atoms are eternal and indestructible. The process of composition to make lower

kinds of matter is called involvation and the corresponding process of dissolution, evolvation. The

lower the kind of matter, the more involved are the primordial atoms.4

Atomic matter is by nature dynamic.


9/31

9

1.8 Space and Time1Space, not being space in the absolute sense of the word, is limitless primordial matter.2In the cosmic sense, space is always a globe. The cosmos is a globe. The solar systems are

globes. The planets are globes. The worlds in the planets are globes. The cosmic atomic worlds

occupy the same space as the physical world, exist everywhere in the cosmic globe. The

planetary molecular worlds have different radii starting from the centre of the planet. The higherworlds penetrate the lower ones. Higher and lower are not to be taken in their spatial sense

when referring to atomic worlds; when referring to molecular worlds outer and inner are more

exact.3The globular form of the molecular worlds is due to the fact that the different kinds of matter

group themselves according to their densities concentrically round an original centre of force.4Each atomic kind has its own dimension. Thus there are 49 dimensions in the cosmos. In the

cosmic sense, dimension means kind of space. Physical matter has one dimension (line and area

are not counted), the highest kind of matter has forty-nine. With the 49th dimension, the cosmos

becomes a point to primordial atomic consciousness.5

Time simply means continuation, continued existence. Time is various ways of measuringmotion, various kinds of processes of manifestation. Physical time is determined by the rotation of

the earth and its revolution round the sun.

1.9 Solar Systems1The globes of the solar systems are replicas of the cosmos in dimensions scaled down

enormously with all the limitations that implies, not least in respect of consciousness.2Millions of solar systems have not yet reached the physical gaseous molecular stage. Millions

of others again are in pralaya with suns dissolved, pending a new day of Brahma when new

suns are to be kindled. The suns are transformers that convert atomic matter into molecular matter.

What we see is just an external physical gaseous envelope.3The solar systems have seven worlds composed of the seven lowest atomic matters (4349).

The highest world of the solar systems is formed from the 43rd atomic kind; their lowest world

(the physical), from the 49th. These seven worlds have been given different names in the different

knowledge orders. Most of those names are old and, due to the misuse by ignorance, diffuse,

ambiguous, meaningless, and thus unserviceable. It is high time we adopted an internationally

agreed-upon nomenclature and then the mathematical one is of course the only expedient and the

most exact one. It will be consistently applied in this book. In order to make comparison easier for

those interested, however, the Sanskrit terms used in India and those used by Henry T. Laurency in

The Philosophers Stone will be given.

4

The seven systemic worlds are called in Sanskrit:

43 satya 43 adi, or mahaparanirvana

44 tapas 44 anupadaka, or paranirvana

45 jana 45 nirvana, or atma

46 mahar prajapatya 46 buddhi

47 mahendra 47 manas

48 antariksha 48 kama

49 bhu 49 sthula


10/31

10

5In Laurency they had the following Western designations:

43 the manifestal world

44 the submanifestal world

45 the superessential world

46 the essential world47 the causal-mental world

48 the emotional world

49 the physical world

1.10 Molecular Matter1Molecules are composed of atoms. The lower the molecular kind, the more atoms enter into

the molecule.2Atoms are composed of primordial atoms. The lower the atomic kind, the more primordial

atoms enter into the atom.3

These definitions are the only ones esoterically tenable.4The matter of the solar systems is called molecular matter to distinguish it from atomic matter,

which is cosmic. Within the solar systems the seven lowest atomic kinds are transformed into

molecular kinds.5Each atomic kind supplies material for six successively more composite molecular kinds, each

lower being formed from the next higher. The seven atomic kinds thus make 42 molecular kinds

and it is these that make up the solar system. The 49 atomic kinds exist in all the worlds, occupy

the same space.6The six molecular kinds within each systemic world have been given analogous names and

mathematical designations:

(1 atomic)2 subatomic

3 superetheric

4 etheric

5 gaseous

6 liquid

7 solid

7The figure of each molecular kind is put after that designating the atomic kind. Thus the

physical gaseous molecular kind is written 49:5.8

The chemical so-called atom of science is a physical etheric molecule (49:4). This molecularkind, like all other molecular kinds, contains 49 different layers of matter. To reach the real

physical atom (49:1), nuclear physicists have to work their way through 147 layers of matter, each

in succession higher than the other. No physical science will achieve that.9It should be mentioned in this connection that the elements of the ancients (at which

chemists laugh), namely, earth, water, air, fire, and quinta essentia, were their terms of the five

lowest molecular kinds, or states of aggregation.

1.11 The Planets1The three higher worlds of the solar system (4345) are common to all who in the solar system

have acquired objective consciousness in the respective kinds of matter. These are individuals

who have left the human or fourth natural kingdom and passed to higher kingdoms.2The four lower systemic worlds (4649) are also called planetary worlds. Now we are


11/31

11

approaching the worlds of man which man has to learn to comprehend if he is not to remain

ignorant of his own existence, quite apart from existence in general. If he knows nothing about his

worlds, he remains the helpless victim of all the idiologies, illusions, and fictions of ignorance in

the domains of religion, philosophy, and science. Without this knowledge he is unable to think in

accordance with reality.

3To facilitate the consciousness development of the monads in these lower worlds, the threelowest atomic worlds (4749) have been divided into five separate molecular worlds. World 47 is

divided into the higher (or causal, 47:2,3) and the lower (47:4-7) mental world. World 49 is

divided into the physical etheric world (49:2-4) and the world visible to man (49:5-7) with its

three states of aggregation (solid, liquid, and gaseous).4The consciousness development in the four lower natural kingdoms goes on in these five

molecular worlds.5The visible world (49:5-7) can be called the special world of minerals, the physical etheric

world (49:2-4) that of plants, the emotional world (48) that of animals, and the mental world

(47:4-7) the special world of man as regards consciousness. The higher mental world, or the

causal world (47:1-3), the Platonic world of ideas, is mans goal in the human kingdom. Somedivide the mental world into three: the causal (47:1-3), the higher mental (47:4,5), and the lower

mental world (47:6,7). This will be discussed further in the chapter about the consciousness

aspect.

1.12 The Monads1The monads are the sole content of the cosmos. The monad is the smallest possible part of

primordial matter and the smallest possible firm point for individual consciousness. If at all one

should try to imagine a monad, one would perhaps come closest picturing it as a point of force.2All forms of matter existing in the cosmos consist of monads at different stages of

development. All these compositions of monads are being formed, changed, dissolved, and re-

formed in innumerable variations, but the monads matter aspect remains eternally the same.

1.13 The Monads Envelopes1The consciousness development of the monads goes on in and through their envelopes. It is by

acquiring consciousness in its envelopes and in the ever higher molecular kinds of these that the

monad attains ever higher natural kingdoms.2All forms of nature are envelopes. In every atom, molecule, organism, world, planet, solar

system, etc., there is one monad at a higher stage of development than are the other monads in that

form of nature. All forms other than organisms are aggregate envelopes, molecules of the kinds of

matter of the respective worlds held together electro-magnetically.3In our solar system there are organisms on our planet only. On the other planets also the lowest

envelope (49:5-7) is an aggregate envelope.

1.14 Mans Five Envelopes1Man, incarnated in the physical world, has five envelopes:

an organism in the visible world (49:5-7)

an envelope of physical etheric matter (49:2-4)

an envelope of emotional matter (48:2-7)

an envelope of mental matter (47:4-7)

an envelope of causal matter (47:1-3)

2The four lower of these are renewed at each new incarnation and are dissolved in their order at


12/31

12

the end of incarnation. The causal envelope is mans one permanent envelope. It was acquired

when the monad passed from the animal kingdom to the human kingdom. This causal envelope is

the true man and incarnates together with the human monad which it always encloses.3The figures in brackets indicate the molecular kinds existing in the different envelopes, the

higher envelopes embracing and penetrating all the lower ones.

4The four aggregate envelopes are oval in shape and extend between 30 and 45 cm beyond theorganism, making the so-called aura. Approximately 99 per cent of the matter of these envelopes

is attracted to the organism, so that the aggregate envelopes form complete replicas of the

organism.5Each of these envelopes has its special purpose. Without a physical etheric envelope the

individual would lack sense perceptions, without an emotional envelope the individual would lack

feelings, and without a mental envelope the individual would lack the ability to think. It is the

presence of these envelopes in the human organism that enables the various pertaining organs to

fulfil their tasks as long as they can function. It should be emphasized here that every cell of the

organism, every molecule in the cell, contains physical atoms which themselves contain all the 48

higher atomic kinds.6All higher envelopes, like the organism, have their special organs (made of atoms), which are

the seats of the different kinds of functions of consciousness and of motion. These atomic organs

in the etheric, emotional, mental, and causal envelopes are in contact with each other.7Since man tends always to identify his self (his monad, ultimate self) with that envelope in

which he happens for the time to be, he regards himself in the physical world as being a physical

self, in the emotional world as an emotional self, in the mental world as a mental self, and in the

causal world as a causal self not seeing that he is a monad, an ultimate self.8It is inevitable at the stage of ignorance that subjectively, when emotionally active, he regards

his feelings as his being, or, as intellectual man, regards his thoughts as his true being. He always

thinks he is that which he identifies himself with at the time.

9The self knows only what it has itself experienced, worked up, and realized, what exists in itsenvelopes, what it has been able to learn in its worlds.


13/31

13

THE CONSCIOUSNESS ASPECT

1.15 The Monad Consciousness1The monad consciousness can be potential, actualized, passive, activated, self-active, latent,

subjective, objective.2The monads potential consciousness is awakened to life (is actualized) in the cosmos. Once

actualized, consciousness is at first passive, then becomes activated in the process of evolution,

until it becomes increasingly more active in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, becoming self-

active in the human kingdom and thereby acquiring consciousness of itself as its own self.3By monad is meant the individual as a primordial atom and by self the individuals

consciousness aspect.4The term self also applies to those envelopes in which the monad has acquired self-

consciousness, with which the self identifies itself, at the time regarding them as its true self. The

self is the centre of all self-perceptions. Attention indicates the presence of the self.

1.16 Different Kinds of Consciousness1One must distinguish between self-consciousness (individual consciousness, self

consciousness in the envelopes), collective consciousness, and ultimate self-consciousness.

(Technically, cosmic, systemic, and planetary consciousness can be distinguished.)2Since the ultimate components of the universe are primordial atoms, the cosmic total

consciousness is an amalgamation of the consciousness of all primordial atoms, just as the ocean

is the union of all drops of water (the closest analogy possible).3The most important insight is that all consciousness is at the same time collective

consciousness. This is so because there is no personal isolation, although only those who have

acquired essential consciousness (46) can live in the collective consciousness.4

There are innumerable kinds of collective consciousness: atomic, molecular, aggregate, world,planetary, systemic, and after these, different kinds of cosmic consciousness. The higher the

kingdom attained by the monad, the more is embraced by the collective consciousness in which

the self, with its self-consciousness preserved, experiences other selves as its own larger self.5Or, to put it differently, all consciousness in the whole cosmos constitutes a common,

inevitable, indivisible unity in which every individual has a smaller or greater part, depending on

the level of development he has attained.6As a higher kind of matter penetrates lower kinds, so a higher kind of consciousness

apprehends lower consciousness. On the other hand, a lower kind cannot apprehend higher kinds,

which always appear non-existent.7The capacity of consciousness increases with each higher atomic kind in a progressive series

the products in which are squared (thus 2 x 2 = 4, 4 x 4 = 16, 16 x 16 = 256, 256 x 256, etc.).8When the monad has attained the highest divine kingdom and has thereby acquired full cosmic

collective consciousness, it no longer needs envelopes in which to develop consciousness. Then,

for the first time, it will know itself to be that ultimate self which it has always been. Until then it

has identified itself with one or other of its envelopes. It is thus not to be wondered at that the

ignorant search in vain for their selves and many of them, indeed, deny that there is such a thing.9All forms in the whole cosmos, also those in the highest divine kingdoms, are only envelopes

for primordial atoms the selves. The forms which we call soul, spirit, god, etc. are the

envelopes which the self uses at its different stages of development.10The different kinds of consciousness also include subjective and objective consciousness,

self-consciousness in the individuals different envelopes, super- and sub-consciousness, thememory, and the individuals experiences of the manifestations of the will.


14/31

14

1.17 Subjective and Objective Consciousness1Consciousness is subjective. Sense perceptions, feelings, and thoughts are subjective.

Everything consciousness apprehends outside itself is material and thus objective.2Sense is objective consciousness, the apprehension by consciousness of objective material

reality in all worlds. Objective consciousness is (subjective) apprehension of a material object.One is to distinguish between physical, emotional, mental, causal, etc. sense.

3Reason is the faculty of imagination, abstraction, conception, reflection, deduction, judgement,

etc. Reason is the instrument for working up the content of sense. Reason can subjectively

perceive vibrations (hunch, etc.) long before sense can refer them to material reality. But it is

not until sense has begun to function that you can speak of knowledge.4At mankinds present stage of development, most people in their organisms can be objectively

conscious only in the three lowest states of aggregation (49:5-7). Objective consciousness of

material forms in higher molecular kinds has been given that vague term, clairvoyance.5Everything that is subjective has its objective correspondence. Every feeling corresponds to

the consciousness in an emotional molecule, every thought to a mental molecule, every intuition toa causal molecule, etc. The kind of matter indicates the kind of consciousness.

1.18 Physical Consciousness1Physical consciousness is the lowest kind of consciousness, just as physical matter is the

lowest kind of matter and physical energy is the lowest kind of force.2There are six main kinds of physical consciousness (physical atomic consciousness excluded)

corresponding to subjective and objective experiences in the six physical molecular kinds.3The corresponding is true of all higher worlds.4Mans physical consciousness is partly the organisms different kinds of sense perceptions,

partly to most people only subjective apprehension by the etheric envelope of the vibrations in the

three higher physical molecular kinds (49:2-4).

1.19 Emotional Consciousness1Mans emotional consciousness is his monads consciousness in his emotional envelope.2At mankinds present stage of development, most peoples emotional consciousness during

physical incarnation is limited to mere subjective experiences of the vibrations in the emotional

envelope.3By nature emotional consciousness is exclusively desire, or what the individual at the

emotional stage perceives as dynamic will. At the stage of barbarism, before the individuals

consciousness in his mental envelope has been activated, desire manifests as more or less

uncontrolled impulses. When the mental envelope, influenced by the vibrations of the emotionalenvelope, is attracted to and woven together with the emotional envelope, mental consciousness is

awakened to life, and desire and thought merge. If desire then preponderates, there ensues feeling,

which is desire coloured with thought. If thought preponderates, imagination ensues, which is

thought coloured with desire.4Mans emotional life is mainly the life of emotional illusions. He is the victim of desires

wishful thinking, of the illusions of emotional thinking. The individual is completely free of the

illusions only after he has acquired causal consciousness.5The vibrations of the three lower emotional molecular kinds (48:5-7) are largely repulsive, the

three higher, attractive. Noble feelings are expressions of attraction.


15/31

15

1.20 Mental-Causal Consciousness1Mans mental-causal consciousness is his monads self-acquired ability of consciousness,

partly in his mental envelope (47:4-7), partly in his causal envelope (47:1-3).2There are four kinds of consciousness of the mental envelope, corresponding to the ability to

apprehend the vibrations in the four lower mental molecular kinds (47:4-7).3The majority of mankind have developed (activated) only the lowest kind (47:7): discursive

deductive thinking from ground to consequence.4The second kind from below (47:6), philosophic and scientific principle thinking, is still the

highest kind of thinking for all except the very rare lite.5The third kind from below (47:5), lite thinking, is in contrast to principle thinking which

mostly absolutifies partly consistent relativizing and percentualizing thinking, partly perspective

thinking and system thinking.6The highest kind of consciousness in the mental envelope (47:4) is still inaccessible to

mankind. Its manifestations consist in among other things concretization of causal ideas

involving simultaneous thinking by systems instead of concepts.7

The content even of lite thinking is for the most part made up of fictions (conceptions withoutreal correspondences), due to lack of facts about existence. It is only the facts of esoterics that

make it possible to think in accordance with reality.8Causal consciousness (47:1-3) is possible only for those who have developed so far ahead of

the rest of mankind that they can purposefully prepare for their transition to the next higher

kingdom. They have acquired the ability to associate with everybody in the causal world, the

meeting-place for the individuals belonging to the fourth as well as the fifth natural kingdom.9Causal consciousness is subjectively intuition, the experiencing of causal ideas, and makes it

possible to study objectively the physical, emotional, and mental worlds, and makes omniscience

in these worlds possible.10To causal consciousness there is, in planetary respect (the worlds of man: 4749), neither

distance nor past time. The causal self is able to study all its previous lives as a man, is ableindependently and quickly to acquire the facts necessary to comprehend all realities in the worlds

of man, achieving more in one hour (in 47:1) than the most efficient mental thinker could manage

in one hundred years. Fictions are precluded.

1.21 Higher Kinds of Consciousness1The following survey of the different kinds of consciousness within the solar system will

perhaps make it easier to understand the fact that ever higher kinds of matter, material envelopes,

material worlds, correspond to ever higher kinds of consciousness.

49 physical (including etheric) consciousness48 emotional consciousness

47 mental-causal consciousness

46 essential consciousness

45 superessential consciousness

44 submanifestal consciousness

43 manifestal consciousness

2It should be evident from the terms used for the ever higher kinds of consciousness that all but

the three lowest (4749) are incomprehensible to mankind at its present stage of development.3The term self applied to an individual indicates the highest world in which he has acquired

full subjective and objective self-consciousness and ability of activity; for example, that self which

has acquired causal consciousness is called a causal self, having acquired essential consciousness


16/31

16

a 45-self, a submanifestal self a 44-self, a manifestal self a 43-self.4In international usage, the term self might for greater convenience be replaced with

monad, thus 43-monad, 44-monad, 45-monad, etc.

1.22 The Selfs Unconscious

1Mans consciousness is divided into waking consciousness, subconsciousness, and super-consciousness.

2In his organism mans waking consciousness consists of sense perceptions, feelings, thoughts,

and expressions of the will.3The monads subconsciousness contains, in their latent state, all the monads perceptions and

worked-up experiences ever since the monads consciousness was awakened to life. Each

incarnation deposits, as it were, its own layer of consciousness. All this is preserved as rudiments

of qualities and abilities, usually manifesting as possibility of understanding. For these rudiments

to be actualized it is necessary that they be developed in each new incarnation, a process that is

nevertheless increasingly easier.4

To the superconsciousness belong all not yet self-activated domains of consciousness in themolecular kinds of the individuals different envelopes. Development consists in self-activating

consciousness and thereby acquiring self-consciousness in these molecular kinds.5Man is constantly receiving impulses from his subconsciousness, less frequently inspirations

through his superconsciousness.6Waking consciousness is thus a tiny fraction of the monads possibility of consciousness.7All the individuals envelopes are being penetrated every second by innumerable vibrations

from without (the emotional envelope by feelings from the environment, the mental envelope by

global mental vibrations). Very, very few of these are apprehended by waking consciousness.

1.23 The Individuals Memories1Each envelope of the individual has its consciousness, its memory: the subconscious collective

consciousness of its different molecules. These memories dissolve with the envelopes. The

permanent envelope in the human kingdom, the causal, retains the memory of everything it has

experienced since its formation.2Remembrance anew is the ability to resuscitate the vibrations received or emitted by the

envelopes.3Expressions of consciousness activate the matter of the envelopes. Constant vibrations (habits,

tendencies, etc.) retain permanent atoms (Sanskrit: skandhas). On the dissolution of the

envelopes they enter into the causal envelope and accompany it at reincarnation, constituting the

latent fund of experiences (predispositions, talents, etc.).4

The primordial atoms memory is indestructible though latent. In order to remember anew it isnecessary to renew the contact with previously experienced reality. Causal selves and higher

selves are able to do this in the planetary and cosmic globe memories.


17/31

17

THE MOTION ASPECT

1.24 Motion Defined1To the motion aspect belong all occurrences, all processes of nature and life, all changes.

Everything is in motion and everything that moves is matter.2Motion has of old been given manifold terms: force, energy, activity, vibration, etc. As motion

should also be considered: sound, light, and colour.3In hylozoics three main causes of motion are distinguished, each one specifically different:

dynamis, material energy, will.

1.25 Dynamis1The original cause of motion, the source of all power, the one primordial force, the universes

total energy, is the dynamic energy of primordial matter, which Pythagoras called dynamis. It is

eternally active, inexhaustible, unconscious, absolute omnipotence.2Dynamis acts in every primordial atom, and only in the primordial atoms, which penetrate all

matter.3Dynamis is the fundamental cause of the perpetuum mobile of the universe.

1.26 Material Energy1In the scientific sense of the word, energy is matter in motion. All higher kinds of matter

(atomic kinds, molecular kinds) are energy in relation to all lower kinds.2Matter does not dissolve into energy, but into higher matter.3When matter ceases to move, its quality of being energy ceases.4All forces of nature are matter. There are more than 2400 different kinds of forces of nature

within the solar system. Every molecular kind contains 49 different layers of matter, which can all

act as energy.

1.27 The Cosmic Motion1The cosmic motion (in the 49 atomic kinds) is the result of a constant current of primordial

atoms (primary matter) flowing down from the highest atomic world through the atoms of all the

worlds unto the lowest world, then returning to the highest world to begin their circulation anew,

and this continuing as long as the existence of the lower worlds is necessary. There are two kinds

of atoms: negative and positive. In the negative (receptive) atoms, material energy flows from a

higher atomic kind to a lower; in the positive (propulsive) atoms, from a lower to a higher. This

current is the force that maintains the atoms, molecules, material aggregates in their given forms.

As a result, all atoms in all worlds, and consequently all molecules and aggregates, radiatematerial energy, in doing which the aggregate always in some respect communicates something of

its individual character. Thus every aggregate emits specialized energy.2Vibrations are the result of higher kinds of matter penetrating lower kinds. This fact has given

rise to the idea that everything consists of vibrations.

1.28 The Will1The will is dynamis acting through active consciousness. Active consciousness is thus the

ability of consciousness to let dynamis act through it. The will is energys individualized mode

of acting through consciousness, in doing which the essential things for ever higher worlds are the

consciousness contents accordance with law, accordance with plan, purposefulness, one-

pointedness of purpose.2The esoteric axiom, energy follows thought, indicates that the expressions of active


18/31

18

consciousness induce matter to act as energy.3Magic is knowledge of the method of using mental material energy to influence physical

etheric material energies to bring about changes in the visible molecular kinds. That method will

remain esoteric, since mankind is too hopelessly ignorant and too egoistic to be entrusted with this

terrible power. Inasmuch as all power is abused (at the best only on account of ignorance)

mankind must be content to be ignorant of all forces of nature other than those it has succeeded indiscovering by itself. That knowledge is entrusted only to those who cannot possibly abuse power.

4Consciousness activation in the three lowest natural kingdoms is an unconscious and

automatic process which gradually becomes a conscious one in the human kingdom. In higher

kingdoms it is the result of self-initiated consciousness activity.5Mans will is at the emotional stage desire, at the mental stage the rational motive. The

original philosophic definition of will was the relation of consciousness to a purpose.

1.29 Different Kinds of Energy and Will1By analogy with the aspects of matter and consciousness, there are also seven kinds of motion,

thus:

49 physical energies

48 emotional energies

47 mental-causal energies

46 essential energies

45 superessential energies

44 submanifestal energies

43 manifestal energies

2As one desires, the word energy can be replaced with will. The different kinds of will are

acquired simultaneously with full subjective and objective self-consciousness in the respectiveworlds, or with the selfs ability to centre itself in the pertaining envelopes.

3The energies that become manifest are the effects of the next higher molecular kinds upon the

next lower ones in each world. The atomic energies act from world to world through the atomic

kinds.

1.30 THE MEANING AND GOAL OF EXISTENCE1The meaning of existence (a problem unsolvable to theologians, philosophers, and scientists)

is the consciousness development of the primordial atoms, to awaken to consciousness primordial

atoms which are unconscious in primordial matter, and thereupon to teach them in ever higher

kingdoms to acquire consciousness of, understanding of life in all its relationships.2The goal of existence is the omniscience and omnipotence of all in the whole cosmos.

3The process implies development: in respect of knowledge from ignorance to omniscience, in

respect of will from impotence to omnipotence, in respect of freedom from bondage to that power

which the application of the laws afford, in respect of life from isolation to unity with all life.4The self develops in and through envelopes, from the lowest physical etheric envelope to the

highest cosmic world. It constantly acquires new envelopes in one world after another. Step by

step it acquires self-consciousness in the ever higher molecular kinds of its envelope by learning to

activate the consciousness in these. By this it finally becomes the master of its envelope. Until

then it is disoriented in the consciousness chaos of this envelope, and it is the victim of vibrations

from without.5The ancient terms which ignorance always misinterpreted soul, spirit, god, etc.,

referred to the selfs envelopes in higher worlds. By soul they meant mans permanent causal


19/31

19

envelope (47-envelope), by spirit his future 45-envelope, by god the 43-envelope.6Atomic consciousness is world consciousness. The individual as a joint owner of a

consciousness collective is like a cell in an organism. The organism is an envelope of an

individual in a higher kingdom. When in the collective consciousness of his world the individual

has so developed that he can take over this material world as an envelope of his own, then he will

be a god of this world.7Atomic consciousness, world consciousness, omniscience (in that world) does not mean that

the individual knows everything about everything that is or happens. But it is possible for him to

find out more or less quickly everything he wishes to know, independently of space and past time

in a given world, to ascertain all relations in the three aspects (matter, motion, and consciousness)

of that world.

1.31 The Rebirth of Everything1All material forms (atoms, molecules, aggregates, worlds, planets, solar systems, aggregates of

solar systems, etc.) are subject to the law of transformation. They are being formed, changed,

dissolved, and re-formed. This is inevitable, since in the long run no material forms tolerate thewear of the cosmic material energies.

2The primordial atoms that form all these compositions of matter thereby have opportunities to

have ever new experiences in new forms. All learn from everything.3When their form is renewed, all organisms (plants, animals, men) get a form of life similar to

the previous form, until their consciousness development requires a specifically different, higher

form, a more purposeful possibility to acquire increased experience.4Man is reborn as a man (never as an animal), until he has learned everything he can learn in

the human kingdom, and has acquired all the qualities and abilities necessary to enable him to

continue his consciousness expansion in the fifth natural kingdom. Rebirth explains both the

seeming injustices of life (since in new lives the individual has to reap what he has sown in

previous lives) and the innate, latent understanding and the once self-acquired abilities existing aspredispositions. It does more than that. It refutes 99 per cent of everything that mankind has

accepted as truth.

1.32 THE NATURAL KINGDOMS1The consciousness development of the monads goes on in a series of ever higher natural

kingdoms: six within the solar system and six in the cosmic worlds. The six kingdoms belonging

to the solar system are:

the mineral kingdom 49:7 49:5

the vegetable kingdom 49:7 48:7the animal kingdom 49:7 47:7

the human kingdom 49:7 47:4

the essential kingdom 49:7 45:4

the manifestal kingdom,

first or lowest divine kingdom 49:7 43

2The monad consciousness is activated in envelopes. It learns to apprehend the vibrations in

their ever higher molecular kinds, acquires in these the possible experience and knowledge of the

matter and motion aspects as well as the ability to use the insight gained. As a rule the monad

spends seven aeons in each of the four lowest natural kingdoms.3It follows from what has been said that each kind of matter has its own kind of consciousness

and its own kind of energy, that every form of nature is a living being with a collective


20/31

20

consciousness and is an envelope for a monad in a higher kingdom than the other monads in that

envelope.

1.33 The Three Lowest Natural Kingdoms1The transition of the monads from the mineral to the vegetable kingdom and thence to the

animal and human kingdoms is called transmigration. It cannot work backwards. Reversion from ahigher natural kingdom to a lower one is absolutely precluded. The degeneration of organisms

besides, of all other matter does not affect the evolution of the monads, but is the process of

dissolution of composed matter, as also is radio-activity. Metallurgists experience a

phenomenon they call the fatiguing of metals.2In the mineral kingdom, the monad consciousness begins to be activated. In the lowest

physical molecular kind (49:7), the monads learn to distinguish differences in temperature and

pressure. In this kingdom, the vibrations become violent enough for a first apprehension of inner

and outer. And thus begins that process of objectivization of consciousness which reaches its

perfection in the animal kingdom. The monads eventually learn to apprehend external realities.

Immensely slowly through the three lowest kingdoms, the monads come to see themselves assomething separate from everything else. For us, who find the contrast between consciousness and

the material external world self-evident, it is, of course, hard to grasp what incredible toil this

process has cost. What the philosophers are trying to do is to deprive mankind of the result of this

process of objectivization.3The contrasting process continues in the human kingdom, but now as a contrast between the

self-conscious self and the external world (including other selves). This process is necessary for

the individual to acquire self-reliance and self-determination, without which qualities he can never

acquire the power of freedom. There is always the risk, however, that self-assertion, and thus

isolation, will become absolute. This can lead to the severance of the tie that unites him with

existence. It is by becoming an ever larger self with all the other selves that the individual acquires

cosmic omniscience. The individual has to learn to overcome the self-assertion at the expense ofother life and to realize the necessity of serving life. Then he will also find that therein lies the

only way to happiness, joy, and bliss.4In order to pass from a lower to a higher natural kingdom, the monad has to learn to receive

and adapt itself to the vibrations from ever higher molecular kinds. At first these vibrations fulfil

the necessary functions of vitalization in the monads envelopes.5Consciousness in the mineral kingdom is gradually manifested as a tendency to repetition,

after innumerable experiences becoming organized habit, or nature. Increase of consciousness

results in instinctive striving to adaptation.6As mineral monads are absorbed by plants and experience the process of vitalization in these,

mineral consciousness learns to receive and adapt itself to etheric vibrations (gradually to everhigher from 49:7:7 to 49:4:1), a condition of entering into the vegetable kingdom. In this kingdom

the monad acquires the ability to distinguish between attractive and repulsive vibrations, thereby

having achieved contact with the emotional world (48:7). Vegetable monads develop most quickly

when plants are consumed by animals and men, and the vegetable monads thereby are subjected to

the strong vibrations in the emotional envelopes of animals and men. By learning to perceive these

vibrations they become able gradually to attain higher levels in their kingdom. In the lower

kingdoms transmigration occurs almost imperceptibly. In between incarnations animal monads are

enclosed in a common envelope of mental matter. The higher up the scale of evolution an animal

is, the fewer are the monads that go to its group. Thus several quadrillions of flies go to form one

group-soul, millions of rats one, hundreds of thousands of sparrows one, thousands of wolves one,

hundreds of sheep one. Only the monkey, elephant, dog, horse, and cat, which belong to group-souls of very few monads, are able to causalize. When a higher animal devours a lower animal, the


21/31

21

lower animals monad becomes part of the higher animals group-soul. This is not the case,

however, when men eat animals. Mans causal envelope is not a group-soul; besides,

transmigration to higher kingdoms is not affected in this way, but is the result of the individuals

own consciousness activity. Animal monads thus do not pass through the human organism, but

return to their own group-soul. Instead, evolution is counteracted, since the fact is that animal

meat coarsens the human organism, the task of which is to strive towards etherization.7When natural research eventually learns about facts pertaining to these matters, it will discover

the causes and effects of consciousness activation. This applies especially to those scientists who

have innate etheric objective consciousness, a thing met more and more frequently.8The levels of development within each kingdom appear most markedly in the animal kingdom

with its many classes from the lowest to the highest animal species. Classes are the natural order

of things in all kingdoms. The classes of nature indicate different classes of age due to the

different times of the transmigration of the monads.9As each higher kingdom is attained (and also each higher level within the same kingdom), the

monads ability to be influenced by more and more comprehensive series of vibrations of ever

higher molecular kinds increases. There are 49 such series within each molecular kind.10When the monad has been able for a long time to be affected by mental vibrations (47:7) and

has thus attained the highest animal species, it becomes possible for it to transmigrate to the

human kingdom.

1.34 The Fourth Natural Kingdom1By acquiring a causal envelope the monad transmigrates from the animal kingdom to the

human kingdom. To term this process causalization is preferable to individualization, since the

monad is an individual in all kingdoms.2The causal envelope is the permanent envelope of the human monad until it essentializes and

passes to the fifth natural kingdom. It is this envelope which incarnates and thereby involves into

four lower envelopes which are soon to be dissolved.3At mankinds present stage of development, man activates consciousness mainly in his

emotional and mental envelopes.4The consciousness development in the human kingdom can be divided into five principal

stages comprising a total of 777 levels of development. The table below shows which molecular

consciousnesses are thereby activated.

5molecular kinds

stage of emotional mental

barbarism 48:5-7 47:7

civilization 48:4-7 47:6,7culture 48:3-7 47:6,7

humanity 48:2-7 47:4-7

ideality 48:2-7 47:2-7

6The Philosophers Stone by Laurency gives a more detailed account of the different

developmental stages.7The number of individuals counted among our planets mankind, causalized here or

transferred hither, amounts to some 60 thousand million. They are in the physical, emotional,

mental, and causal worlds of our planet, most of them asleep in their causal envelopes since they

have no possibility of causal consciousness pending a new incarnation.8The transmigration of these monads from the animal to the human kingdom occurred in five


22/31

22

different epochs, the last one some 18 million years ago, the individual of the four earlier epochs

being transferred later from another planet. The causal envelopes of men are thus of widely

different ages, which fact explains the different developmental stages. Those who have reached

the highest stage have some 150.000 incarnations behind them, those at the lowest some 30.000.

In this connection one ought to consider the fact that the capacity of consciousness is doubled with

each higher molecular kind, so that the numbers of incarnations are not themselves to becompared.

9The Western declaration that god created all men equal thus is as great an error as the fiction

of the Indian philosophers that all are gods. God cannot create a single monad, only give the

monads the opportunity of being introduced into cosmic manifestation. Certainly, some time all

monads will attain the highest divine stage, but before that they will have to be involved down to

the physical world, and after that to mount the seemingly endless graduation of developmental

levels from the mineral kingdom to the highest divine kingdom.10It should be obvious from the above that mens moral judgements of each other are the

criticisms of ignorance and the unjustified verdicts of hatred. Men are neither good nor evil. They

are on a certain level of development and know no better. To this must be added the effects of thelaw of destiny and the law of reaping. To understand this it is also important to know that during

times of upheaval, the clans at the highest stages do not incarnate to any great extent. Of those

incarnated at present, more than 85 per cent are at the two lowest stages. Most of the remaining 15

per cent are of the unobtrusive, quiet kind of people. Unless they have been given special tasks,

they incarnate chiefly in those countries where they have the best prospects of finding others on

the same level. Those at the stage of humanity who have not had the opportunity to study esoterics

feel themselves outsiders, not understanding why, and put the blame for this upon themselves.

This is, regrettable, the rule. They have been initiated once and thereafter have remained seekers

after the lost word of the master (esoterics). They have the knowledge as an instinct, not

knowing its cause, and thus they are uncertain.

11In the physical world man is an organism with an etheric envelope. He has two kinds ofphysical consciousness. The sense perceptions of the organism allow him to apprehend objectively

the material forms in the three lowest molecular kinds. The vibrations in the molecular kinds of

the etheric envelope are still apprehended only subjectively by most people. Visible realities are

the only ones man knows of and they are for him the only real ones. He takes his feelings and

thoughts to be just subjective apprehensions, being quite unaware of the fact that when he

experiences feelings it is his attention (the monad) moving to his emotional envelope, and when

he is thinking it is the monad moving to his mental envelope. He does not know that he is a monad

in a causal envelope.12

The individual at the stage of barbarism as a physical self only, without emotional and mental

consciousness worth mentioning, belongs to the very lowest levels of the stage of barbarism.Immediately after causalization he is little more than an animal, often not even that intelligent. His

life in the emotional world between incarnations is of a very short duration. He soon relapses into

dreamless sleep in his causal envelope, being incapable of employing the consciousness of his

mental envelope. On the higher levels of the stage of barbarism, his mental consciousness is

activated to the extent that he is able to draw simple conclusions.13

As an emotional self (at the stages of civilization and culture), the individual is in his thought

and action determined by emotional motives. The emotional stage is the most difficult stage of

development. Man must by himself acquire consciousness in all six molecular kinds of his

emotional envelope and in the two lowest of his mental envelope. To the emotional stage belongs

almost everything that man today regards as civilization and culture.

14The emotional stage is divided into the two stages of civilization and culture, each of whichpresents a great number of levels.


23/31

23

15The emotional consciousness of the civilizational individual seldom extends beyond the

lower three or four molecular kinds, his mental consciousness seldom beyond the lowest two.

With this modest intellectual capacity he intellectualizes his desires into such emotions as

normally exist in the lower regions of the emotional world. Generally, they are of the repulsive

kind.

16It is at the cultural stage that the three higher molecular kinds of the emotional envelope areactivated. The pertaining vibrations in the emotional world are mainly attractive. Having once

attained these regions, the individual can gradually free himself from the tendency, since long

acquired, to a repulsive attitude to the surrounding world and to himself. His feelings become

more and more ennobled with each higher level and supersede his previous receptivity to the

countless expressions of hatred of the repulsive vibrations. For everything that is not love is

hatred.17

On the highest cultural levels, the individual becomes a mystic. In the domains of emotional

consciousness that he has now reached, he no longer has any use for his intellectuality as acquired

up to now. Frequently in states of ecstasy he experiences the unity of life past all understanding.

His imagination, which develops powerfully, makes him lose himself in seeming infinitude. Hisemotional development is terminated and crowned by an incarnation as a saint. In subsequent

incarnations he strives to become a mental self.18

The mental stage is divided into the stages of humanity and ideality (or the causal stage). The

humanist activates consciousness in the four lower mental molecular kinds, the idealist in all six.

The humanist is a mental self, the idealist a causal self.19

The most distinguishing trait of the humanist is his striving after common sense, a

prerequisite for acquiring causal intuition. He can no longer, like the mystic, lose himself in the

ineffable, but demands above all clarity in everything and facts for everything. His firm

determination to comprehend reality and life despite everything compels him always to seek

further. The ever longer periods spent in the mental world between incarnations, during which

time he can work up his ideas undisturbed, re-act upon this endeavour of his. He becomes moreand more receptive to the inspirations of his elder brothers in the fifth natural kingdom. When he

has come to the Sokratean realization that man cannot know anything worth knowing, he is ready

to receive the esoteric knowledge.20

In the old days, he would then have been chosen to be initiated into some secret knowledge

order. Nowadays he is given the knowledge in a mental system of the fundamental facts of

existence which his reason compels him to accept as the only tenable working hypothesis. Using

the knowledge gained, it is possible for him to activate ever higher kinds of consciousness, until,

one day, the world of intuition opens up before him and he becomes able to ascertain facts about

reality and life by himself, as well as to study his previous incarnations as a man.21

Then he also sees how hopeless it is for man with his insufficient means to acquire thisknowledge, how almost impossible it is for most people even to grasp it. Starting from their own

petty belief system or thought system, they imagine themselves able to judge everything by this.

He sees that mans life of consciousness, apart from ascertaining facts in the visible world,

consists of emotional illusions and mental fictions. He sees, too, how futile it is to do what Platon

did, to hint at the existence of a world of ideals. Now he knows that it exists.22

As a causal self he acquires knowledge of the laws of life and the ability to make rational use

of this knowledge with one-pointed purpose. He sees that the mistakes of ignorance as to these

laws are no crimes against the deity, that all the good and evil that man meets with are his own

work.23He enters into communication with those in higher kingdoms and receives from them the

further facts he needs but cannot ascertain for himself. He gradually acquires the twelve essentialqualities which make it possible for him to pass to the fifth natural kingdom. These are


24/31

24

enumerated in the esoteric account of the twelve labours of Herakles (Hercules), which have been

totally distorted in the exoteric legend.24

Mans five envelopes all have their own consciousnesses and their own tendencies. Those of

the organism are inherited from ones parents. The qualities and abilities, etc. that the self acquires

in its emotional and mental envelopes have their correspondences in a cluster of atoms (Sanskrit:

skandhas), are preserved by the causal envelope, and used at reincarnation. It is the task of the selfto learn to master its envelopes, so that they submit to its will. This is no easy task, since the

tendencies of the envelopes are the results of habits from thousands of incarnations. At mankinds

present stage of development, the emotional controls the physical. Man still has to learn to control

the emotional by the mental. And more than good resolutions is needed to do that. It can take

many lives once one has seen the need for it.25

When the individual leaves his worn-out organism with its etheric envelope, he goes on living

in his emotional envelope and, when this is dissolved, in his mental envelope, and when this too is

dissolved, he waits, asleep in his causal envelope, to be reborn into the physical world, which is

incomparably the most important, since it is in this world that all human qualities must be

acquired, and it is only in this world that he has the possibility of freeing himself from emotionalillusions and mental fictions. Life between incarnations is a period of rest in which man does not

learn anything new. The quicker the self can free itself from its incarnation envelopes, the quicker

it develops.26At the same time as the etheric envelope frees itself from the organism in the so-called

process of death, the emotional envelope frees itself from the etheric envelope which remains near

the organism and dissolves along with it.27Mans life in the emotional world can prove completely different for different individuals,

depending on their developmental level.28

Like the physical world, the emotional world has six successively higher regions. Most people

are nowadays objectively conscious from the beginning in the three regions that correspond to the

three lower regions of the physical world. (Mental consciousness, however, remains subjective.)Objects in those regions are material counterparts of the material forms of the physical world,

which fact often causes the newcomer to think that he still lives in the physical world. During this

first period, the individual can also associate with his friends in the physical world when they are

asleep. Without esoteric knowledge he believes, like everybody else, that the highest region in this

new world of his is heaven and his final destination in eternity.29

The emotional envelope dissolves gradually: first its lowest molecular kind, then the

problems of reality _henry t laurency

Documents